The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-04-21
WHAT TO DO WITH THEM.

AhIO. AiCI| "OAOt HANAAA
lively: "What shall we do with our
girls?" This does not seem to be a
difficult question to answer, and we
reply: Train them SO that they become
good wives and mothers, and there
will be little difficulty in providing
for them. Evep&if they do not all Of
them find husbands they will, if our
advice is followed, Mcguire a stock Of
useful information that will be invalu-
able. A really good Rousekeeper need
never want for a situation in which to
obtain her daily bread in a perfectly
respectable and honorable manner.
That the majority of girls expect to
be married sooner or later is an unde-
niable fact, but how poorly are they,
as a general thing, fitted at the present
day to make a home for a man of
moderate means! They have a smat-
tering of a host of useless accomplish
ments- They go to school until they
are budding into w~omanhood. They
know a little French, a little German,
a little music and, perhaps a little Lat
in. They can paint a little, and they can
embroider a little after a fashion; but
they cannot bake a loaf of bread, iron
a shirt or rel superintend the pre-
paration of the simplest meal. They
are apt to look upon a husband as a
kind of money-getting machine, and
they make his home comfortless by
their wastefulness, their shiftless and
their supercilious i~ncompetency. If
the means are not readily forthcoming
to foster their extravaganza they con-
slider themselves the most abused be-
ings in the world, andif disaster comes
to them the man is alone to blame
because he has not the of
a Vanderbilt.
Hence it is that SO many young men
remain single. They have not the
heart to marry when they see the
miserable lives that SO many Of their
acquaintance are doomed to in the
welded state. On every side we hear
the masculine cry, II cannot afford to
get married" and it is not a false one.
They cannot support a wife in the
fashion that many women demand to-
day. If they could marry as their
fathers did, if they could really find a
helpmeet, they would not hesitate
about quitting the constantly increas-
ing ranks of bachelorhood. They re-
main single from necessity not choice.
There is only one remedy for this
state of things. Mothers must train
their daughters as they were trained
themselves. A lady is not less a lady
because she has all the attaintments of
a good housewife. II she is rich
enough to have numerous servants at
her command, she can direct them
more intelligently because she has
been taught practically the duties of
housekeeping, and if pecuniary mis-
fortune should come to her, she is pre-
pared to keep the sacred fire of home
alighted by her own unaided exertions.
A false idea prevails among many
women who have had to work hard
themselves in their younger days.
They believe their daughters should
be ornamental rather than useful, and
that to obtain a sure passport to refined
society they must be do-nothings. So
the mother becomes an unpaid house
keeper or one merely working for her
board and clothes, and her daughter
sits in the parlor and finds fault # her
comfort is interfered with while she
lazily takes a few stitches in a tidy.
paints a plaque i~ndiferently, or drums
a hackneyed air upon the piano.
We do not decry what are called